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24.120 Moral Psychology
Spring 2009
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24.120 MORAL PSYCHOLOGY
RICHARD HOLTON
XXIV Autism and Sociopathy
ONE LINE
The sociopaths and those with autism are the same on their understanding of morality, the
difference is in their motivation.
Why do they differ in their motivation? Perhaps: they have internalized various Kantian rules.
ANOTHER LINE
Sociopaths and those with autism are the same on their empathetic responses, but they differ in
their understanding of morality, because the former lack, and the latter have, an understanding of
the difference between conventional and non-conventional obligation. (Blair, Nichols?)
Further thesis: Perhaps one couldn’t make this distinction if one weren’t moved by the pull of the
moral. On such a thesis, the understanding and the motivation would be tied up together (would
there still be some kind of conceptual priority?).
There is some empirical reason to suppose that the sociopaths lack of understanding stems from
their lack of emotional response to the distress of others.
FURTHER CONSIDERATION, THAT SEEMS IN TENSION WITH THIS
Sociopaths seem to lack self-control in general. So maybe their moral attitudes are just a
manifestation of this. But isn’t self-control the ability to restrain one’s emotional responses in the
light of one’s judgments about what is best. So doesn’t this suggest that the failure is rational and
not emotional?
SOME FURTHER (HIGHLY) TENTATIVE HYPOTHESES THAT MIGHT HELP
If acquired sociopathy is the same as congenital sociopathy; and
if Damasio is right that acquired sociopathy results from a particular lack of emotional input (i.e.
into frontal processing)
then maybe we can see the sociopath’s failing as, at bottom, emotionally based.
CONCILIATORY CONCLUSION
Perhaps the right thing to say is that both morality and self-control require both an emotional input
and some rational processing. And maybe thee are deficiencies on both sides for both sociopaths
and those with autism.
Sociopaths lack one ability to empathetically engage (to respond to distress), a deficiency that is
both emotional and rational; and (presumably as a result) they lack the ability to understand
morality properly (to make the conventional/moral distinction), and they lack the motivation to
be moral.
Those with autism lack an ability to empathetically engage in a rather different way (they cannot
put themselves into the place of others); this gives rise to both an emotional and a rational
deficiency. As a result they cannot understand much of morality (social rules etc); and their
motivation is eccentric (strongly rule governed).
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